Step 5: The Box

Step 6: The finished product

Here's the finished box in it's splendor. I'd have to say that it looks at least half decent.Video #1Video #2Now I only have to wrap it up and give i...

As most guys I don't tell my wife that "I love you" as often as I should, but this little gadget will at least improve that situation as bit.

So by combining a nice box and some hardcore electronics nerdiness I've made a nice christmas gift for my wife. The LoveBox is a small box that when opened displays a random message of love to the viewer.

Step 1: Alternative usages

Love might be what makes the world go around - or was that money?

So in order to get the world spinning the LoveBox can be changed into a DecisionBox by altering the software to give a random answer of "YES", "NO" and once in a while even an "MAYBE" when the box is opened. That's the perfect gift for the undecided decision maker. ;-)

For gamblers the box could be adapted to show lotto numbers when opened.

The possibilities are endless as most people needs to be told something or make decisions....

Step 2: What you need

You need the following things:

A nice box

A alphanumeric display

A microcontroller

A 74HTC138 (3-to-8 decoder)

Some resistors

Two 3-volt batteries

A microswitch (NC)

Wires, hot glue gun, soldering iron and other small tools.

In this project I used a box that I stole from my wife, an eight character 14-segment display I got of eBay a year ago, a AVR ATtiny2313 micorcontroller and two 3-volt lithium batteries for cameras.

Just as an FYI the box you used for this project it is actually used to keep the hair of a one of the kids when they pass away under the age of 10. Usually this box is only used by the pastor. I found this picture on google images and i thought it was unusual that you used it in a project.

The 74HCT138 is used because there aren't enough output pins on the µC to control all the pins on the display. The 74HCT138 is able to individually address each of the 8 display sections using only 3 pins of the µC, instead of 8 µC pins.

For those of us that are are not as comfortable with circuitry, you could buy a cheap voice recorder (sometimes available at the dollar store) & record a few seconds of "I love you's" then just use a simple switch to activate it when the lid is opened!!!

It might be. I've never seen the inside of a camel hump but the material beneath the brown paint/dye on the outside had a off-white bone like color and emitted an disgusting burnt hair-like odor when I Dremelled it.

Hi, First off, this is a great project! Thank you for your post. My only complaint is that the instructions are a bit lacking in some places. This leads me to the question...where do you solder the power supply at? Also, is the code that you posted the edited version(the one you tweaked due to you soldering some resistors in the wrong place) or will it work if the resistors are attached as shown in the schematic? Thanks!

It only took two evening to make this, and it's fun to actually do something physical. My days are usually spent reading and writing reports and attending meetings so this is an welcome break from that. Besides, if I'd buy her flowers she probably just suspect that I had been cheating on her.... :-)

Really a nice idea and I hope the wifey loves it! Soldering it dead-bug style like you did requires brain power! The last picture reminds me of the time I had to make a Slot Machine for school. *shudders*

Yea, I agree that it's not for the Average Joe to build this. Without a good deal of soldering / electronics building experience it'll be very hard to duplicate this project. It's mainly meant as an idea of what you could do with a nice box and some electronics tinkering in an evening or two. If it could be sold as a complete kit with all the parts including a suitable box and a PCB to the "general public"....